SOP & REHKOPF PROPEL RANGERS PAST BULLDOGS
KITCHENER, ONTARIO. The Hamilton Bulldogs wrapped up the team’s 3-game road trip on Friday night at the legendary Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, marking their first visit to square off with the Rangers since December 2019.
It was the Kitchener Rangers who jumped out early on Friday night, opening the scoring at 3:40 after an initial Mitchell Martin shot off the post was signaled as a goal by the official behind the net, defenseman Hunter Brzustewicz fired the puck in the confusion off the right point and recorded his 5th of the season to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. The Rangers continued the push at 5:30 with Filip Mesar turning around back of the Bulldogs goal and finding Matthew Sop in the slot for his 12th of the season doubling the lead to 2-0. With the Rangers on the power-play at 7:22, Francesco Pinelli won the draw to Brzustewicz at the left point who fired a quick pass to the right circle for Carson Rehkopf to walk on and shelf, giving the hosts a 3-0 lead. The Bulldogs began to find their legs in the latter stages of the frame, with Matteo Drobac fighting hard and making 13 saves to hold his mates in the game, Nick Lardis stole the puck off a Rangers defenseman and nearly tossed a backhand over former Bulldogs Marco Costantini while the line of Ben Bujold, Florian Xhekaj & Adrian Rebelo earned a pair of net front chances that Costantini was able to hold off, keeping Kitchener up 3-0 through 20 minutes.
The Rangers continued the onslaught into the middle frame, after Matteo Drobac made a blocker stop on Matthew Andonovski, Matthew Sop dove to whack the rebound into an open side of the Hamilton goal for his 2nd of the night & 13th of the season giving Kitchener a 4-0 lead at 2:26. With a pair of assists in the game to his name, Filip Mesar added a goal to his count, after a Carson Rehkopf slot shot was denied by Drobac, Mesar swept through the slot as first man to the puck and tossed the puck into the Hamilton net for his 15th of the season putting Kitchener up 5-0 at 5:34. At 9:10, Andonovski sent Rehkopf away on a break, as the Rangers center looked to pull the puck middle he was met by a Matteo Drobac stick check but the puck kept rolling through the Bulldogs netminder and in, making it 6-0 Rangers and spelling the end of the night for Drobac with Tristan Malboeuf taking the goal for the Bulldogs. After the Bulldogs were unsuccessful in denting Marco Costantini during a double minor power-play for a high-sticking call to Rehkopf the Rangers would add one more in the period. As Kitchener made a change at their bench Danny Zhilkin was joined on a 2-on-1 by Matthew Sop with the puck being put right to his stick to record his hat-trick goal at 18:43 and give the Rangers a 7-0 lead through 40 minutes.
The Bulldogs hit the board in the final frame, on the power-play, Cole Brown worked the puck to the right circle where Lucas Moore surveyed the setup for his team, striding into the circle Moore rifled a shot that Florian Xhekaj was able to get his stick on for a nifty deflection past Costantini, giving Xhekaj his 9th of the season at 4:54. Before the game was out Carson Rehkopf out of the right circle again off a Rangers cycle recorded his hat-trick goal at 12:51 to give the Rangers an 8-1 lead they would hold onto with 27 saves on the night from Marco Costantini.
The Bulldogs return home on Saturday, February 11th to host former Dogs Avery Hayes & Gavin White for the first time with the Peterborough Petes at the FirstOntario Centre for a 4:00pm puck drop.
For more information on Hamilton Bulldogs 2022-23 Flex packages or single game tickets call 905-529-8500 or visit hamiltonbulldogs.com
